Bell and Texas Risperdal lawsuit

[Guest guest]

I wonder if the time that & was hiding the side-

effects of risperdal (like stroke and diabetes in children) and

alledgedly bribing state officials to buy the stuff coincides with

the time that Bell, the CEO of CAN, was marketing risperdal?

He left J & J in 2004 to take over as CEO of CAN.

And I wonder if the alledged bribery of state officials by the

risperdal salesmen had any relationship to risperdal being the one

and only drug every approved specifically for the treatment of

autism. The last head of the FDA pled guilty in October to hiding

his ownership of stock over which he had direct regulatory

oversight, so we can only imagine what kind of ethical consideration

prevailed at the FDA under his tenure.

http://biz./ap/061017/fda_crawford.html?.v=2

I don't know about you folks but I think Bell has some

explaining to do.

>

>  http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/12/16/

> 16drugs.html

> Lawsuit claims state official pushed drug, was rewarded with money.

>  

> By Embry and W. Gardner Selby

> AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

>      Saturday, December 16, 2006

>  

> A major corporation and several subsidiaries misrepresented the

safety

> and effectiveness of an anti-psychotic drug and unduly influenced

at

> least one state official to make it a standard treatment in

public

> mental health programs, according to a lawsuit the state has

joined.

>  

> Attorney General Greg Abbott joined a lawsuit filed in

County

> district court by , a former investigator for the state

of

> Pennsylvania, against & Inc. and five related

> companies. says in the lawsuit that he learned of payments

to at

> least one Texas mental health official in interviews he conducted

as an

> investigator. No official is named in the lawsuit.

>  

> The lawsuit, which came to light Friday, seeks to recover for the

state

> untallied alleged overcharges to the state's Medicaid program,

which

> pays for health care for low-income people.

>  

> ' lawsuit alleges that the companies launched a drug named

> Risperdal in 1994 to treat schizophrenia. About the same time,

the

> state was developing a protocol, or treatment guidelines, for

which

> drugs should be used in public mental health programs. The

defendants

> " provided substantial financial contributions to and improperly

> influenced the development " of the protocols, the lawsuit said,

and

> Risperdal took precedence in the protocols over cheaper, equally

> effective medicines.

>  

> The drug later received recommendations as the medicine of choice

in

> the state's mental health protocol for treating children and

> adolescents, even though it lacked a Food and Drug Administration

> indication for those age groups, the lawsuit says. It says side

effects

> and health risks include increased chance of stroke, renal failure

and

> hyperglycemia.

>  

> The companies pushed Risperdal in other states through paid

consultants

> on expert panels, peer-to-peer marketing strategies

and " administrative

> decisions made by a select few public officials, " the lawsuit

says. The

> companies sent an unnamed Texas official around the country as a

> spokesman for the drug, and they hired third-party contractors to

> conceal their control and funding of medical education programs,

> speakers' bureaus and clinical research that promoted the benefits

and

> safety of Risperdal, the lawsuit says.

>  

> The lawsuit says at least 17 states, including Texas, have

implemented

> the protocol or are doing so.

>  

> " We allege it's a scheme whereby they passed off as medical

science

> phony representations and misleading facts about the efficacy and

> appropriateness of these drugs, " said Melsheimer, a lawyer

for

> .

>  

> Abbott's office declined to comment on the lawsuit, as did

spokesmen

> for & and the state's Health and Human Services

> Commission, which oversees the Medicaid program. A commission

spokesman

> did say Texas paid 308,000 claims totaling $73.5 million for

Risperdal

> in 2005.

>  

> Melsheimer described as a " classic whistle-blower " who filed

the

> lawsuit in 2004 on behalf of Texas to recover the companies'

> overcharges. Because of his whistle-blower status, the lawsuit

was

> sealed from public view until Abbott joined it.

>  

>